Shhh… I Got Two $50 ShareBuilder Bonuses
If you went for the Sharebuilder bonus I posted a while ago, your bonuses should be coming in now. I just got my second $50 bonus from Sharebuilder from opening up a second account (Joint this time). Those codes are expired, but you can still get a $50 bonus after your first trade with one of these codes:
ENTERTAIN50 - expires 12/31/2006
ENT50 - expires 12/31/2006
HH50LOGIN - expiration unknown
I really like how Sharebuilder keeps you constantly informed on the progress of the offer and helps you make sure you’ve qualified for it. Here’s the well-organized timeline:
1) Visit the Sharebuilder website and start an application. Be sure to input the correct code into the Promotional Code blank.
2) Immediately after you submit your application (pick the Basic plan for no monthly fees and $4 trades), you will get an welcome e-mail titled ‘Welcome to Sharebuilder’.
3) The same day, you will also receive an e-mail titled ‘Your Promotion Code has been Accepted’. Very reassuring. It will even contain specific directions as what you still need to do to fulfill the promotion requirements. In this case, you need to fund your account and make a trade.
4) After you’ve done that, you get another e-mail titled “You have Qualified for the Promotion.” How nice! It will say something like “You have met the requirements of the promotion and will receive your $50 account bonus within 4-6 weeks.”
5) Exactly 4-6 weeks later, you will get another pleasant e-mail titled “Your Promotion has been Fulfilled”. It will say something like “Thank you for participating in our promotion. We have just credited your ShareBuilder Account.” You log into your account, and as promised your free $50 is there.
For me, Steps 1-3 was on March 26, Step 3 was on April 5th, and I got my $50 on May 8th. So they did it on time, and I didn’t have to call them to nag or anything.
Don’t you wish all promotions were like that?!
I don’t know if people can get two bonuses if you apply for a second Individual account, but I applied for one Individual, got the bonus, and then applied for a Joint with the same login information and got the bonuses ($100 total) for both. It may be worth a shot, especially if you’ve already successfully gotten one bonus already.
Also, Sharebuilder does not perform a credit check for new account openings, so that’s not a concern.
Find more in Deals & Offers | 5/10/06, 2:24am | Trackback
May 10th, 2006 at 6:12 am
The code you mention here does not work anymore, but the code ENTERTAIN50 does.
Thanks for the tip…
May 10th, 2006 at 8:15 am
I was able to get two bonuses by signing up for two individual accounts. However, I did wait a few months between applying for the second account and the first.
May 10th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Wyatt - where did you find out IPLANGIFT no longer works? Just wondering, that’s the first I’ve heard of it. I added ENTERTAIN50 to the list, thanks.
May 10th, 2006 at 10:14 am
I don’t really like the way people describe the ShareBuilder bonus. To get actual money into your hands, one needs to make a purchase of stock ($4 - very reasonable) and a sale of stock ($15.95 - horrible!). It’s $20 to make a roundtrip transaction and $50 bonus is actually $30 and should be treated as such, IMO.
Transaction fees for low balance accounts will be astronomical, and tranaction fees for medium accounts ($1000-$2000) are still considerable.
I really can’t figure out who should be using ShareBuilder. People with tiny accounts should be in index funds. People with a little more money should be in index funds. People with a decent amount 15K+ should consider introducing some stocks in addition to their index funds.
The only strategy I can think of for ShareBuider is to gamble it up with a purchase of some penny stock. Otherwise the transaction costs and systematic and unsystematic risk make ShareBuider a bad idea.
May 10th, 2006 at 11:55 am
anon - If you really just want the cash, just buy $1 of stock + $4 commission, and take out $45. You don’t need to sell anything, just keep the $1 of stock in there. So it should be considered a $45 pure cash bonus.
That said, I just buy $46 of a stock I like, and let it ride. Sharebuilder is built upon it’s no-inactivity-fee structure, so I just sit back and watch it grow over time.
May 10th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
“so I just sit back and watch it grow over time.”
*if* it grows… it is the stock market after all…
May 10th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
If you invest in a nice index ETF (I did EEM), I think the chances that it will increase over the long run are very good.
May 10th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
What do you guys think the chances are of me getting a “second” bonus considering I didn’t issue my first trade in time (so then I cancelled), hence not every getting the first bonus. So, it’d be a second promotion on a individual acount in my name… but I never technically fulfilled the first one. Opinions?? DO IT??? =)
May 10th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
ENTERTAIN50 worked for me, I received the promo accepated email.
May 10th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
I had one individually account that I signed up w/o bonuses long ago.. and signed up another individual account with the IPLANGIFT code awhile back, the bonus was credited w/o issue.. but I now have two individual account. I would try if you never completed the first bonus, might work, might not. Only works if you open a new account though.
I should have just bought an index ETF like most people though, instead of 0.2896 share of Whole Foods. The $3.83 dividend paid out is still amusing though.
May 10th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
I think you can even get more bonus, if you have kids, and you open custodial accounts for them. I did that at INGdirect.
May 10th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
FEDS raised the rates again any news on the online avings accounts to raise rates or good CDs?
May 10th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Since I have a confirmed success today for ENTERTAIN50, I’ll just leave that one up.
Miller - I don’t know… I’d do it.
May 19th, 2006 at 6:38 am
Sharebuilder confuses me a little bit. Costco members get $55 now? It used to be $85 or $65 depending on your card status (executive or gold respectively). But those codes costco85e06 and costco65e06 no longer are valid as the website says when you enter them. You do get $55 though for just being a Costco member and it does verify your membership level. But if you sign up under the Costco website and then enter an additional promo code, will it give you both bonuses like if you then enter ENTERTAIN50? No promo code needs to be entered when you sign up from the Costco webpage. Also, it says refer friends to get them $55 if they are a Costco member and you get 25 free trades. They get the $55 anyway, but 25 free trades is not bad. They only get $25 if they are not a Costco member.
July 20th, 2006 at 9:36 am
Thanks to Jonathan, I just recieved my 3rd 85 dollar bonus from costco. I chose to invest in a 1 dollar ETF for myself, my wife, and a joint account. That’s a profit of 240 dollars for a few minutes work. I know there is some confusion on how to qualify for the $85 and $65 bonuses for executive and goldstar members, respectively. Just click on the following link:
http://www.costco.com/Service/.....o=11135326
It’s pretty self explanatory from there. If you have considered upgrading to an executive membership, now is the time. I more than paid for my executive membership upgrade with the sharebuilder bonuses. According to costco’s website, this promotion should be valid until Aug 27.
Once I saw how easy it was to qualify for the bonuses for my wife and I individually, I decided to try a joint account reusing my costco membership number. (I used my wife’s unique card number for her sharebuilder account). To my surprise, I still qualified for the promotion. There was one glitch with reusing the membership number, however. For some reason they initially had problems validating the costco number, but 2 days later they had resolved the problem and I got my bonus. I was worried that they wouldd catch on to the duplicated email/phone/adress, but it had no impact on my promotion reimbursment. I’m thinking about submitting my fourth bonus for another $80 profit.
August 25th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Hey a funny happened while doing the Sharebuilder /Costco promotion that Costco always has in the passport they send out. A bit of info, I am a married gal with 3 kids. I have always done this because of the free money and this current offer said there were no restrictions as long as you make the inital trade and jump through the correct hoops etc. We always keep the $ in there as well we don’t cash it out. Well my husband and I decided to take full advantage of my diagnosed A.D.D. and slowly open up 4 accounts for EACH child. One for a college fund, one for a car fund, one for a home fund and one for a retirement fund. The BIG purchases in life that we can never pay for fully by ourselves. Yes, I KNOW this sounds a bit much, (Okay a LOT much) but the intent is to keep things very separate. I figured that the person who this would make life difficult for would just be me. WELL… after opening the last few accounts slowly over a 6 week period. They froze all my accounts and I have literally made history with Sharebuilder. They freaked out and envoked a little clause that says they can reject or close an account for any reason at any time. A homeland Security issue? So after being tranfered to a serious “muck-e-muck” and being grilled for an hour he did commend me on how smart and resourseful I am but that I cannot do it this way again. The new rule (because of little old me) will be quickly written up and posted that only one account per person PER promotional period. Despite the fact that Costco has no such rule. So my kids now only have two accounts each, since they have closed the last two for each child. But the current promotion for Costco ends Monday. So whatever awesome promotion Costco comes up with next, I can only do once for each child or adult. Kinda dumb cause I will just do it slowly anyway through their own slow loophole. I will STILL have a total of 12 accounts for my 3 kids in the end! Gee Whiz! Oh well! Maybe God will bless my smart mommy efforts and bless me with a $100 Costco promotion next cycle. It’s not like we did it all on one day! We have opened accounts slowly over the last few years. The last 4 were the “nails in the coffin”. They are just mad because I was smart enough to do it legally and ethically and do something good for my kids. Not like I am selling drugs to get college $$$$. Combined we have over $2500 in Sharebuilder 80% of the money is from our own deposits, not the bonus promotions. Go figure! I still love Sharebuilder though! Pretty funny that a 32 year old mommy could shake things up a bit!
Hee! Hee!
September 13th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
I just opened a joint account and eft 25 from my bank. SHould i wait for my bonus to come first before i go crazy and open another joint, some individuals, and some esa’s to get more 50 dollar bonuses? How do getting multiple accounts work? WIll i get a bonus on all of them?
October 12th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
I tried using the entertain50 code but Sharebuilder says “I must use an exisiting account.” Has anyone else gotten this message?